In a note to clients, Timothy Arcuri of Cowen & Company cites some positive feedback from a February survey of 3,000 smartphone users that suggests the company is seeing a great number of "switchers" moving to the iPhone from devices running Google's Android. Further, it appears that a quarter of iPhone purchases are coming at the expense of Android or other operating systems, and the switching is at the highest rate in China.

According to Arcuri, "Nearly 20% of iPhone 6/6+ owners across all markets surveyed said their new device replaced a competitor's smartphone, of which 83% were Android. Additionally, another 5% of iPhone 6/6+ owners across all markets surveyed indicated the device is their first smartphone. When taken together, these data imply that 25% of all iPhone 6/6+ purchases reported thus far have been "virgin" demand, i.e. users new to (or potentially returning to) the Apple/iOS ecosystem.

The note further stated that "Our survey data indicates 30% of iPhone 6/6+ owners in China replaced an Android smartphone. This is more than double the Android-to-iPhone 6/6+ migration cited by survey respondents in Japan (~14%) and more than three times the Android-to-iPhone 6/6+ migration cited by survey respondents in the UK (~9%) and the United States (~8%)." 

The last point of interest in their report noted that their "survey data indicates ~42% of respondents that intend to purchase an iPhone 6 or 6+ over the next 12 months currently own a competitor's smartphone. Among this group, ~85% are Android users. In other words, even though a significant percentage of iPhone 6 and 6+ buyers to date have been Android switchers, our latest survey data implies the phenomenon may still be [in its] early days."

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